I originally thought that I could be somewhat flexible in my sleeping time - especially if i pushed a nap earlier rather than later. However, that turns out not to be the case. If I move a nap time more than about 20 minutes (or more) earlier or later, I wake up feeling foggy, groggy and generally jet-lagged. This feeling can last a couple hours, and on one occasion lasted a couple hours over the next nap period. I had to move a couple of naps to accommodate some things that I had scheduled before I started tri-phasic sleep. Fortunately, all those glitches are past, and all my future commitments will be with full consideration of my sleep schedule.
One of the other "side effects" that I have noticed is that I am much more focused than I have ever been before. All my life, I have had distracting, slightly intrusive, thoughts. For example, I might be doing the dishes and be thinking about an architectural design problem at the same time. I might be doing architecture, and be thinking about the ramifications of the tau manifesto. I would spend time that I SHOULD be doing one thing and use that time doing something meaningless - usually surfing the web, but sometimes just doing stuff to avoid doing what I should be doing. The especially frustrating part of that was that I would have resistance doing even the things that I WANTED to be doing. My brain seemed to just be perverse.
Now, however, no resistance. I do a task with complete focus and when i have reached a completion point (either work done, or work on it for a specific amount of time) I move on to the next task. I have gotten more done over these last 4 days than I would have thought possible. I don't seem to need any "downtime", by which I mean that I don't have any desire or interest in doing non-productive recreational activities such as mindless web surfing, watching tv shows, playing video games, or unproductive puttering. I have always had a lot of interest and respect for the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, but have always imagined it to be beyond me. While I think that I am a long way from enlightenment, this new experience of mindful focus has been liberating.
This^ is what I want.
ReplyDeleteI have been considering polyphasic sleep schedule for a while and this winter break between classes I am transitioning. I still work (but only part time, 4 hours 5 days a week, mind numbing boring work from home) and today is the first day (only 1 sleep so far) but I am doing a schedule like you-all 3x90 equiphasic. I hadn't come across any other accounts of a triphasic schedule until now, and I'm going through your posts to find tips and pointers and just benefit from your logged experiences. Thank you for being so detailed and thorough!
About this particular post- I have ADHD fairly severe, and though high doses of medicines do help I choose not to rely on medicine to fit in with the "muggles" so to speak... I already have asthma and must depend on *one* medicine, I certainly don't need another. Anyway, trying multiple methods of lists and alarms and schedules doesn't always work and its a constant struggle to attempt to stay focused and on task, and one of my biggest productivity threats. If better and single pointed focus can be a side effect of this schedule, than more than anything I want to succeed at this.
Devi, glad to help. I know I have not posted anything recently, but I just have not posted anything recently - I sort of ran out of things to say about it. It is just how I sleep now. If you have any questions, be sure to ask. I will try to answer them (and as an added bonus, it will give me some material for another post). :)
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